Political Quotes

“I offer an amendment. I have offered similar amendments in the last 2 years, and they have passed each time. I had hoped that it would not be necessary to offer this amendment again this year. Unfortunately, an investigation from the Government Accountability Office that was released last month found that the VA schedulers are still manipulating appointment wait times and are underestimating how long veterans have to wait to get care at a VA facility. The GAO's most recent audit found that schedulers changed dates and shortened wait times for 15 to 20 percent of the cases reviewed. To make matters worse, USA Today recently claimed to have studied more than 70 investigative reports, and it found that these manipulations were being performed at the behest of the VA supervisors. Last year, a different inspector general investigation uncovered an actual memo from the VA leadership that encouraged this type of behavior. The memo I speak of is known as the Fast Letter 13-10, and it was handed down directly from the Office of the Director of the Veterans Benefits Administration to the Philadelphia VA Regional Benefit Office. I was appalled--but not totally surprised--to learn of this memo. The need for my amendment first surfaced 2 years ago as a response to explosive allegations about the Phoenix VA's keeping secondary, unofficial records of claims and appointment requests.…”